Ham Radio Now

The full title is Florida Amateur Spectrum Management Assn., or FASM.

Last year, Bryan Fields W9CR led a coalition of dissatisfied repeater owners and members of the Florida Repeater Council in a successful effort to take control of that organization. There was some conflict, but eventually Bryan's group prevailed. The changed the name and re-incorporated. Now they have to make good on their pledge to provide better coordination service. Bryan explains how.

Radio Rating: A.

The call signs are: WA4YL, AC4YL and AG4YL. So what do you think this show might be about? Dawn, Cathrine and Melanie had just given the YL Forum at Orlando, and Gary invited them to keep going on the show.

RADIO RATING: A.

Bruce Perens K6BP. Pretty sure we don't need to say any more.

RADIO RATING: A

Gary takes you on a video tour of the Orlando HamCation, and... what? This is just audio? Yeah, you're gonna miss something. But it's more or less narrated, and we're giving it a RADIO RATING of B.

Then we get a surprise guest. Fan of the show N1LGQ stopped by to chat, and we put him on the air.

HRN Host Gary KN4AQ scrambled to set up a new SIB* for the Orlando HamCation. He thought it was all working before he took it apart and hauled it to the 'fest.

He didn't.

But the show must go on. Of after swatting bugs (the system kind, not the Florida kind... the HamCation isn't infested...) Thursday night and early Friday morning, Gary pushed the LIVE button, and Jason Johnston KC4HWB from HamRadio2.0 helped him launch this hamfest's series of shows.

Most of the problems were video related, and while you'll hear about them, you won't see them. You also won't see that the whole show is out of sync.

The subsequent shows worked better, after Gary beat on the system a little more. OK, a lot more.

RADIO RATING: A. All these Orlando shows are Talking Heads in the SIB, so you don't need no stinking (out of sync) video.

*Studio In a Booth

From the archives of Amateur Radio//Video News...

Digital Voice for Amateur Radio was the most complex of the three documentaries that HamRadioNow's Gary Pearce KN4AQ produced for DVD, before starting the online show. In 2007, Gary traveled to Alabama and Dallas in one trip, Chicago and St. Louis in another, and Washington DC in a third to gather interviews and footage of what was then just emerging as Digital Voice systems for Amateur Radio. The program was edited and released on DVD in 2008.

The DV modes included an HF mode called WinDRM (which evolved to today's FreeDV), and VHF/UHF modes D-STAR and P-25.

Of course, these modes have evolved since this program was produced, and newer modes like DMR, Yaesu System Fusion, and NXDN have been developed. Consider this program a snapshot in the early history of Amateur Radio Digital Voice. It's certainly not a current tutorial on operating those modes today.

Radio Rating: C- at best. This was a video documentary, and while there is a lot of talking, most of the pictures you're missing are equipment in operation, locations, and a few graphics. You'll miss a lot, but since there's so much information, you'll learn a lot, too. [The Radio Rating is our estimate of how much you'll get from the program audio without the video. It's not a rating of the overall program. Those are always A+]

David and Gary catch up on the final details of all the proposals and revisions that are going into the ARRL Board of Directors meeting this weekend.

Radio Rating: A

Links:

• http://myARRLvoice.com
• http://www.central.arrl.org/
• https://www.arrldakota.org/dakota-division-news

Oh Noooo... another two-hour plus episode :-(

Is it too late to tell you that the important meat of this show runs a scant 90 minutes. Get in at the 7:45 mark, and you'll be done about 93 minutes. The last 45 is just David and Gary goofing around.

In that 90 minutes we review what's been going on with the ARRL, from the Code of Conduct to the proposed revisions to the Bylaws and Articles of Association. We look at a new group that's formed to protest some of the ARRL Board's actions. And mostly we read some detailed responses to inquiries that Gary and others sent to some of the Directors. They're not coming on the shows yet, but they are being more responsive than we saw initially (though, as Roanoke Division Director Dr. Jim Boehner N2ZZ noted, those responses won't satisfy many critics).

That new group is called myARRLvoice. Some members of the 'steering committee' for the group are former Board members who could not speak in opposition to League policies until their terms expired on January 1. Now they can. Their web site will have links to the documents we reference in the show.

Radio Rating: A+. As usual, a few web sites, but we don't even put the text we're reading on the screen (Gary didn't have time to format it). [The 'Radio Rating' does not measure the quality of the program content. It's our guess as to how much you lose if you aren't watching the video of the show].

Hal Tourley W8HC is our tour guide for this preview of the 3Y0Z Bouvet Island DXpedition, where 20 top DXpeditioners will travel to the most remote spot of land on Earth to warm up from the brutal winter we're having in North America.

Radio Rating: B+. We've got some pictures and maps from the DXpedition website, so if you can visit there sometime soon, you're all set. (The Radio Rating is our estimate of how well you're understand the program from just the audio track, without the video.)

The ARRL has yet another proposal coming to the January Board Meeting — a fairly extensive revision to the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws with some curious changes in how the board can remove a member and a Director. CQ is pointing it out, but they've got their own trouble getting issues printed. And our friend Dan KB6NU has details on his Blog. David and Gary review the review.

Then they talk about the state of and future of HamRadioNow as Gary plans his escape.

Links:

• Dan's blog http://KB6NU.com
• CQ Newsroom: http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/